Battered Eagles can’t hold off Rams in wet conditions, lose Saquon Barkley and Quinyon Mitchell in 24-20 loss

The Eagles entered Sunday’s game with just about everything going against them.

DeVonta Smith (hamstring) was out. Lane Johnson (personal) was a late addition to the inactives list. Saquon Barkley (hamstring) dropped out early in the game.

Yet, the Eagles still had a 20-10 lead going into halftime. And they never scored another point.

The Rams mustered 14 unanswered points in just over two minutes late in the fourth quarter to seal their 24-20 win at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles had just 72 net yards of offense in the second half — 77 net yards rushing, negative-5 net yards passing.

Here’s our instant analysis from the Eagles’ second straight loss:

The offense got off to a solid scoring start thanks to Darius Cooper and his pair of touchdown receptions, including a catch on what was nearly an interception by Rams safety Quentin Lake. Jake Elliott nailed a pair of field goals, one from 29 yards and another from 56.

But the scoring masked some underlying issues. Going into halftime, the Eagles had just 100 net yards of offense, three quarters of which came in the passing game. The group was struggling mightily on third down, going 0-for-6 before the break.

The glimmer of offense the Eagles managed to produce in the first half completely disappeared in the second. The group punted twice, turned the ball over on downs twice, punted again, and turned the ball over on downs again. Only one of those drives exceeded single-digit yardage — their 11-play, 62-yard drive in which they sputtered at the Rams’ 2-yard line and turned the ball over on downs.

That final play was their second of two failed fourth-down attempts. Their first, a long fourth-and-1 at their own 38, was a Tush Push attempt that was stuffed by Rams linebacker Nate Landman as he jumped over the pile. Their second, fourth-and-goal at the Rams’ 2, was an incomplete pass to a diving Cooper on the goal line.

Nick Sirianni said on the second failed fourth-down attempt that he was trying to make it a three-score game, as the Eagles were up, 20-10, with seven minutes, 27 seconds remaining in the contest.

“Hey, I’m very well-aware of how the fourth-down decisions go as the head coach,” Sirianni said. “You go for it, and you get it, great. You go for it and you don’t get it, that’s on the head coach. And we didn’t get it. So that’s on me.”

The Eagles offense got the ball back with just over a minute left in the game. Hurts took a sack on first down, threw an incomplete pass intended for Cooper on second, was strip-sacked by Rams outside linebacker Byron Young on third down, and threw another incomplete pass for Cooper on fourth down.

Hurts finished the game going 12-for-27 for 93 yards and two touchdowns (78.2), but in the second half, he went 2-for-9 for 10 yards.

The Eagles offense went 0-for-12 on third down. One of the underlying reasons for their struggles was Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula’s decision to overload the right side of the offensive line with rushers in certain third-and-long situations. Notably, Markel Bell, the third-round rookie out of Miami, was making his first start at right tackle in place of Lane Johnson.

The unit often fell short of sorting out those pressure looks on third downs, and Hurts didn’t seem to have hot answers (or he didn’t take advantage of them) against the blitz.

That was the case early in the second quarter on third-and-14 from the Rams’ 28. The Eagles were outnumbered on the right side of the line, and Hurts took a sack for a loss of 10 yards. Still, Elliott was unaffected by the field position, as he made a 56-yard field goal.

After the game, Hurts chalked up the Eagles’ third-down issues and their overall listlessness in the second half to “poor execution.”

“I think it comes down to finding a flow, finding a rhythm as a unit, as a group, and going out there and executing at a higher level,” Hurts said. “We didn’t do that today.”

In the first half, the defense responded well to their shortcomings of Week 3 against the Chicago Bears.

The secondary picked off Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford twice — once on the opening drive by Andrew Mukuba, and again by Cooper DeJean.

The defense made other big plays, even if they weren’t turnovers. In the first quarter, Jalen Carter had a quarterback hit on a stunt on third-and-14 from the Eagles’ 22, forcing Stafford into an early throw that went incomplete to Davante Adams in the end zone. He was double-covered by Michael Carter II, who was starting at safety in place of the injured Marcus Epps, and DeJean.

Mojo Ojomo had a third-and-1 run stuff of Rams running back Kyren Williams on the following series, forcing a three-and-out.

In the third quarter, Nolan Smith Jr. sacked Stafford for a loss of 8 yards, pushing the Rams back to the Eagles’ 40-yard line. The Rams ultimately settled for a 48-yard field goal attempt, but kicker Harrison Mevis pulled it wide left, and the Eagles maintained their 20-10 lead.

With Mevis evidently struggling, Rams head coach Sean McVay opted to go for it on fourth-and-8 from the Eagles’ 36 early in the fourth quarter. Stafford threw an incomplete pass over the middle to Rams tight end Tyler Higbee, who was well-covered by Jihaad Campbell and Jeremiah Trotter Jr., who started at inside linebacker in place of Zack Baun (concussion).

The Eagles defense was sound in the second half, until late in the fourth quarter. On the same drive in the final frame, the Rams had an explosive play — a 20-yard pass to Higbee with Campbell in coverage — and the Eagles committed a pair of back-breaking penalties — a Riq Woolen defensive pass interference against Puka Nacua and a Jonathan Jones unnecessary roughness against Williams as he was pushed out of bounds.

The Rams capitalized with a Williams 1-yard touchdown run, making it 20-17 in the Eagles’ favor with roughly four minutes remaining in the game.

Woolen was called for pass interference again while in coverage against Nacua with just under three minutes remaining as the Rams sought a comeback on their next series. The Rams marched 79 yards down the field, including the penalty, scoring the go-ahead touchdown on a 7-yard Williams run to go up by the final margin of 24-20.

“It’s not like we did anything drastically different from what we did early in the game,” DeJean said of the two consecutive Rams scoring drives. “I think just the penalties didn’t help us. They hit some chunk plays on us that hurt us. We played a lot of zone, so we’ve got to tackle check downs, not allow leaky yardage when they catch the ball.”

The Eagles entered the game without key players such as Smith, Johnson, Baun (concussion), Epps (groin), and Dallas Goedert (knee).

The team’s injury woes continued, as they lost Barkley, Quinyon Mitchell (knee), Jonathan Greenard (ankle), and Tank Bigsby during the game.